Event #3 - When it Rains [Tag: Anyone]

[Emery Attiyah]

Darkness again, all she could see was darkness.

She was exiting the computer lab with the rest of the group, wanting to take care of Ryan. But the moment she got close to the door she heard a white noise and felt dizzy, blacking out soon after...

God she was tired of the darkness. Last time she was like this, she had that horrible dream about Peyton, and she didn't want that again. This time though, her mind went racing through her memories of what happened before. The texts she got, how the ringing she had heard almost made her lose her mind. The way Copper growled and attacked Nerissa.. The scenes kept playing in her head over and over like a broken record. It all seemed connected, and that scared her. Just as it seemed like she would be stuck on repeat, the images stopped and there was nothing but darkness again...

Instead now everyone she was close with was in the darkness. Alex, Naya, Ryan, Kairi, Max, Deedee, Vanessa, and Peyton... They all had their backs faced to her. As if refusing to look at her. She felt like she move now, so she did, moving to get onto her feet. But the moment she did she heard water and felt cold, making her look down to see she was standing in water that mirrored the darkness of everything. Her eyes narrowed and she looked back up at everyone she cared for.

"Hey guys, do you know what is going─on.."

She stopped when it looked it seemed like they weren't listening, her voice trailing off.

"Guys?"

She took a step forward.

"Guys please answer me.."

She begged, taking another step and a step after that until she was close to Peyton. She started to shake, reaching her hand out. "Peyton?" She touched her shoulder.

Suddenly Peyton turned around, her eye sockets empty and blood leaking from her mouth. Then so was everyone else around her. They ganged up on her and made the same ringing noise she had heard before, making her scream. Her hands going over her ears.

───

"No!" She yelled out, waking up again in a sitting position. She breathed out, her right hand on over heart, gripping her shirt tight. "Dammit, not again," She breathed, taking a moment to catch her breath. She slowly came back too, not taking too long to realize she had blacked out again. "Jesus, what happened this time. Hey, is everyone ok─." She stopped, immediately taking note how everyone she had just been with was gone. Her eyes went wide, staring into the darkness in horror. Where was everyone? "Alex?" She called out, "Ryan? Tristan?" Her heart starting beating faster, "Jaime? Copper? Nerissa?!" She got up to her feet, her body shaking when she started to realize she was alone. She turned on her phone's flashlight, looking everywhere, but she saw nothing... She was all alone.

"Oh god, guys!" She yelled louder, "Guys where are you?! Alex!!" Her voice raised, finding herself getting a panic attack. "Oh god, oh god, I was just with them!" She looked down at her phone, her whole body freezing when she did.. The time was telling her a whole day had passed. But it was still... Oh, she needed to calm herself down. She took a couple of breathers, relaxing herself. Cause not only did a day pass, but it felt like it was getting colder. And she wasn't about to make herself sicker. So she cleared her head, closing her eyes and focused on calming down. Once she was calm she started to look around the room, when she did she finally took notice of a girl laying on the ground. The girl she immediately recognized as Max.

"Oh my god, Max!" With quick reflexes, Emery kneeled down to Max, looking her over before gently shaking her. "Max, Max wake up, please," She called to her, hoping she would wake up soon.

[Maxine Evans]

A line of computers hummed in the lab. Max sat alone, dropping a clip into the timeline. Her interviewee stared through the preview monitor, his mouth cocked in a self-assured smile. She paused, shaking her head, lips twitching upwards. The head room was still a little too much but perhaps if she were to zoom in a touch - the editing window shuttered into nothing. Darkness ripped across the room – the sickening crunch of a camera – a scream –


The memory shifted – her trainers crunched on the debris of the hallway, the light from her mobile phone beaming a trail. Okay, so this was bad. Her fingers traced the lockers with a ka-bump.

Think! Right. Okay. One, look for people. Two, find a place with reception…

‘Hey!’ her voice echoed, ‘Anyone out there?’
Nothing replied in the gloom. Her hand clenched around the phone. Maybe the rest had evacuated the building – no one knew she was here after all – they were probably all evacuated outside, counting heads -she hit record on movie mode… look for a door…

‘So… they didn’t mention earthquakes in the info packet,’ she narrated, ‘Bad for business you see…’

She didn’t know how long she wandered. The blind eyes of windows showed nothing, save for streaks of wet. Breathe. There had to be a landline somewhere...

White noise screamed through her ears. She doubled over, the lockers streaking metal as the room became a hurricane. She tried to walk, pushing her way through the door – she needed to find somebody, anybody
The room gave away, the walls melting into -

---

“Max, Max wake up, please…" Max woke with a hacking cough, throat chaffed by dust. She blinked – white hair tumbled on her face… She recognized it anywhere…

‘Emery. What – ‘ she looked around her, and sat up with a groan. Her body trembled, the ache a red-hot poker in her stomach. Her eyes darted around the room. Chairs, desks, a whiteboard… Emery must have dragged her into the room after her stumble. Why else would she find herself here? ‘What happened?'

[Emery Attiyah]

When Max woke up, Emery sighed of relief. Thank god.. She helped her friend sit up, making sure she was comfy. She looked around the room before asking what happened. "I don't know," She shrugged, "Last I remember was being with Alex, and a few others. But now, now they're nowhere to be found. What's worse is that I can't seem to find Naya or Peyton.. Hell, I've only seen Jaime, Nerissa, Ryan, Tristan and Polaris. Everyone else I haven't seen... Which isn't good considering we've been here for a day now, She stated, turning on her phone to show her the date and time, proving that it had been a day.

She sighed, sitting back on the back of her ankles. She scrolled through her phone, hoping to see if she received any texts while she was passed out. To her disappointment it was still the same situation. No texts, and no hope to send them. She placed her phone back into her lap, looking back to Max. "All I know is that there is no reception on our phones, so no hope for texts," She started, stopping right after, knowing fully well that wasn't all she knew.. I might need to tell her about that Unknown number... Jaime and Alex believed me, so maybe she'll believe me too?

"But if you do get a text, and it tells you to do something... Do it. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me if you don't you'll get this horrible ringing in your ear. I refused to do what it said and I thought I was losing my mind," She showed her phone, proving that she did gets the texts telling her to Flash Alex, and right after that how it didn't ask her to dance. "I know it sounds completely crazy, but I don't want us to risk getting hurt," She said, giving her friend a worried but serious expression.

After she let the information sink in, she looked around. "First things first though, we need to turn on the lights. We should search the room for anything useful," Emery said, getting up and walking towards the switch. But as she was walking her right foot ran into something, tripping her. She gasped, falling straight on her knees, forcing her to take a sharp intake of breath to keep herself from cursing this time. "What the hell did I trip ove─Sig!" She had turned around to check what she tripped on, only realizing it wasn't an object, it was Sigard. She quickly started shaking him. "Hey Sig, Sig wake up!" She said, repeating the process over and over.

She started to panic when he wasn't waking up as fast as Max, but when she leaned over to check if he was breathing, she relaxed. She stopped shaking him and sighed. "He's out cold, but he looks okay..." She said, flipping her hair out of her face so she could see better. She checked her knees, no scratches or cuts, but damn they were a bit sore.

[Maxine Evans]

"Last I remember was being with Alex, and a few others. But now, now they're nowhere to be found. What's worse is that I can't seem to find Naya or Peyton.. Hell, I've only seen Jaime, Nerissa, Ryan, Tristan and Polaris. Everyone else I haven't seen... Which isn't good considering we've been here for a day now.” Emery turned the phone over – the display glaring the date and time.

A day… Max’s brows furrowed in thought. A day and no police, no ambulance...
‘A whole day, huh. Must’ve been one hell of a bender,’ she joked.

Emery sighed, her finger scrolling up her screen as she crouched on the floor. Her mouth was a firm line. Maxine glanced at her own mobile – the video recording from yesterday (Holy shit - *yesterday*) black and gritty in the thumbnail.

‘All I know is that there is no reception on our phones, so no hope for texts… but if you do get a text, and it tells you to something… do it.’

Max rose an eyebrow. “So, if it told me to go ahead and snog someone… okay, weird time for a party game, but hey,” she shrugged.

Emery shook her head,. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but trust me if you don't, you'll get this horrible ringing in your ear. I refused to do what it said and I thought I was losing my mind…’

She showed the phone to Max. Max expected a dare, something like, ‘serenade the person to your right’, ‘switch clothes with someone of the opposite gender’, ‘take the most embarrassing picture of yourself and post it on Facebook’ but…

Flash your brother

Hey! Are you happy, Perv?!

I said flash, not dance.

“Ooooookay. That’s fucked. What kind of dickhead…” she glanced up. Emery’s face was pale, a subtle flush to her cheeks. Max bit her tongue. The wound was clearly still too fresh. She decided not to push it further – for now.

Emery continued, “I know it sounds completely crazy, but I don't want us to risk getting hurt.”

A memory flashed – her mum sitting in the car fuming, Max’s arm in a cast.
‘I told you not to go there and you didn’t listen! Maxine –‘
‘They were going to go without me!”
‘If your mates told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?’

Max nodded. ‘Sure.’

Emery stood up, the phone clenched in her hand. "First things first though, we need to turn on the lights. We should search the room for anything useful –“ she fell over with a crash.

"What the hell did I trip over - Sig!"

Max walked over – how had they missed him… the rouge-haired teen was sprawled, eyes shut and breathing slow. Emery began to shake him ‘Hey Sig, Sig wake up!’ Desperation clouded her voice. Max cringed… if Sig had a spinal injury….

Emery stopped, moving the curtain of hair away from her face.

"He's out cold, but he looks okay..."

Max grabbed a few textbooks from the floor. She crouched down next to the unconscious student. Lifting Sig’s legs about 30 centimeters, she placed the books underneath them. They needed to keep his circulation going… speaking of -

Max lifted his shirt, her fingers unbuckling his belt. Honestly, she was surprised it wasn’t loose already. She scooted over to his tie, and unloosened it with a careful tug.

‘We probably shouldn’t move him…’ she tilted his head up, looking for any debris that might have been lodged in his throat, ‘but we can’t exactly wait for prince charming to wake up either. If the rest are in trouble…’ she frowned. It’d be easy to split up, one person to look over Sig while the other looked for the others… but…

First rule of urban exploration – never go alone. She thought back of her pervious hallway escapade and the blackout… well, they got that right.

"Right - okay, we have our phones. No signal, but we can use them for a torch, video -' she glanced at Emery's phone -' smashing that git's nose… So that’s good. Two, we know the others are in the school –we’re alive, and lucky for you…’ she beamed, ‘I eat broken hallways for this like breakfast.’

She turned to the door with a glint in her eye. ‘So what we need right now is a plan –‘

THUD.

‘SHIT!’